


The Taxi Driver

by Longcat



Category: Original Work, Supernatural
Genre: Challenge Response, Werewolves, first introduction to the supernatural, taxi driver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 03:37:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13115166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longcat/pseuds/Longcat
Summary: A taxi-driver finds himself thrown into the world of the Supernatural by a hunter with car trouble.





	The Taxi Driver

**Author's Note:**

> This was a challenge from a chat group. I found it tucked in a folder and had never posted it.

The dawn's light was just starting to color the sky, shadows still dominated the landscape. The deep hues of blues and blacks mingled in the underbrush of an abandoned orchard. Gnarled fruit trees reached out with their limbs, grabbing at the man walking through. His form was muted by the several layers he was wearing, with a grunt he repositioned a large and lumpy duffle bag across his back. The shuffling sounds of him walking barely audible over the noisy tree frogs, his incoherent mumblings creating visible puffs of air in front of him. Slowly the sound of the frogs was left behind as he broke through the grove into a small field. The unnatural neon glow of a gas station guided him the rest of the way.

Dropping his bag, the clanging of metal sounded as it hit the ground. Taking a look down at his cellphone he breathed out a string of curses. Not letting his bag out of his sight he stepped into the empty gas station, the bell ringing above his head. From behind the counter a kid looked up from a textbook, clearly using the slow night shift to get some studying in.

“Hey man, can I use your phone?” He asked the clerk with a wave of his cell. “Need to call a taxi, my ride broke down.”

“Uh, sure? Normally we've got the pay phone out front, but they took that down when we got word of cell coverage that never came. So yeah, sure.” He picked up the landline and put it on the counter for him to use.

“Darryl?” He asked reading the kid's name tag. “You got a phone book or a list of cabs I can call?”

The clerk nodded again and pulled up a worn yellow tome from behind the counter. He flipped through the book until he found a page and made his call. He had some time to kill before the taxi would be around to pick him up. Stalking through the aisles he grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks before returning to the counter. He kept watching outside for the taxi and maintaining a watch on his belongings that he had left just outside the door. Pulling out his wallet he flipped through several credit cards that to anyone paying close enough attention to would notice that the names were different on each.

“Thank you, will that be everything… Mr. Martin Van Buren?” Darryl the clerk gave him an incredulous look but swiped the card and shrugged when the receipt spit out.

“My dad was a bit of a history nut, what can I say?” Martin said as he took the card back along with the bag of food. The bell chimed again as he walked back outside sitting on the curb next to his bag. With a heavy crinkling he opened a bag of chips, he sighed when he saw that it was mostly air inside, tonight had not been a particularly good one and things weren’t going his way. He was a hunter of the supernatural, if things went his way he would have been highly suspicious. In fact he was in his predicament because things had been going well and he had let his guard down.

The lights of an approaching car flashed into his vision. Wiping the salt and crumbs on his pants he stood up and flagged the taxi his way. Lifting his bag off the ground he waited for the driver to come around and open the trunk for him with a bounce to his step despite the early hour. Once the trunk was shut he took his place in the back seat, the driver ducking his head to get inside and starting up the car. The driver's ID swung under the rear view mirror and his credentials were visible against the back panel.

“Rough night, huh?” The driver asked making small talk, his turban brushing the ceiling of the car.

“That's an understatement.” He replied, stretching his arms out with a yawn.

“That bad huh? Woman problems?”  
Ranji (at least that's what his papers said) prodded for more information, he didn't like quiet rides and found that he could learn a lot just from talking to people.

“Actually, car issues. I think I totaled mine after driving off the road. Tried to avoid a deer, hit a tree instead.” Martin fudged the actual details of the wreck, but the truth was his car was totaled and he still had the job to compete. “And I needed that car to finish work.”

“Ah, I’m sorry my friend. Perhaps you can find another solution?” Ranji asked without taking his eyes from the road. An idea struck Martin and he reached into his pocket pulling out a roll of cash. Flashing it so the driver could see he leaned into the small open space dividing the back seat from the front.

“Hey Ji, can I call you Ji? What do you say to cash that you'll be my wheels until my job is done? Probably won’t be much more than just for the night.” he asked him hoping the flash of money would get him what he wanted.

Ranji thought it over quickly and reached over and turned off the rate meter. He gave Martin a grin in the rear view mirror and indicated with a thumbs up that he was good.

“Alright, you got yourself a driver. I'm Ranji, as you can tell from my papers back there, where did you need to go first? I can leave you my number if I drop you off anywhere and you need me.”

“Sounds good to me, Ji. I'm Martin and you think we can head back to the old orchard mill? Shouldn't take too long, I tracked them that far.” He could feel the pump of excitement as he aimed his taxi driver back towards his prey. He was fairly certain he had killed one after he had run it over with his car. A neat shot to the head usually took care of them.

“You tracked? What did you say your job was again?” Ranji turned around to look at his passenger, his bushy eyebrows raised.

“I take care of nuisance beasts, got called to work a pack of feral dogs in the area.” The lies came easily and Ranji accepted with a nod. There had been reports of dog attacks in the area so it made sense to him. The stranger sitting in his back seat looked like he could track and hunt, so he accepted it as truth.

The roads were dark and winding as they entered the wooded area surrounding the abandoned farms. Shadows drifted around them as the taxi drove down the dirt roads kicking dust up behind them. The headlights illuminated a wreck of a car if the side of the road. The car was totalled, the front crunched up like an accordion. Ranji grimaced at the sight as he drove past, doing a quick double take when he thought he saw a body near the fender but the shadows of the night swallowed the scene before he could get a better look.

The old farmhouse and mill came into view as the trees thinned out around them. The dirt road coming to an end in front of the place. A worn and beaten pickup was parked not too far from where they sat.

“Oh, looks like one of your coworkers is here already.” Ranji pointed out the other vehicle as Martin stepped out of the car. He watched as his strange passenger pulled the large duffle bag out of the trunk and walked it up to the hood where he opened it and started going through the contents. Ranji’s eyes bulged when he saw Martin lift out a number of different guns and knives before pulling a homemade ammo box out. The bullets he loaded into the gun glinted silver in the little light provided by the interior of the car passing through the windshield. Loading a second handgun with just a couple bullets he placed the gun within Ranji’s reach and gave him a nod. Tapping the hood twice Martin waved at Ranji before he took off running for the building. Watching his customer disappear into the old building he thought he saw movement around back. He jumped and flinched when he heard a gunshot go off bringing his attention to where Martin had run in.

“It's just feral dogs… Just dogs” he repeated to himself we he waited for the other man to finish his business inside.

Another two gunshots rang out in rapid fire right before Martin's body was thrown violently through the door. The man scrambled back onto his feet, gun trained on a hulking figure moving at him. It definitely wasn't a dog, but it sure as hell wasn't human either. It was bearing down on Martin before it swiped a heavy am at him knocking the gun out of his grip. His shot going wildly off mark as his body was tossed across the yard like a rag doll.

Ranji was pulling at his beard nervously as he watched the man he had met earlier get thrown twenty or thirty feet without effort from a monster. “I should have turned him down, there is no money in the world worth this.” He mumbled to himself quietly, he grabbed at the pistol that had been sitting in his sight before putting the car between himself and the scene, he didn't want to draw attention to himself.

Martin's body lay prone as the beast took its time walking up to him. An evil grin stretched back along its muzzle showing off serrated teeth. It picked up Martin's limp form and held him up to his face as if waiting for Martin to come to before biting him in half. A shot rang out and the creature's eyes widened in panic before the light went out in them, it collapsed to the ground with Martin still in its grip.

Ranji stood across the field a look of panic and surprise on his face as he held the gun up in shaky hands. Martin struggled to get up but when he saw the monster was dead he let out a loud whoop of joy. He bounded over to his taxi driver with a manic grin on his face.

“How'd you like that?! You saved my hide! That's getting you all the cash I got on me.” He wrapped his arm around the other man's shoulder as he took the gun from his grip.

“Martin!! What the hell was that?!” Ranji found himself shouting, his adrenaline catching up to him. He slipped out of the loose embrace and started pacing back and forth. He was tugging at his beard while running a hand over his turban, this was just too much.

“First off. My name is Doug, not Martin, sorry about the lie there but I didn't think I'd get tossed through a building or have you kill a werewolf for me! Second, I'm a hunter. Things from fairy tales and things that go bump in the night, all real. I hunt and kill then so they don't kill us.” He said as if it was completely normal to have giant wolfmen throw him across a field. Doug pulled out the wad of cash from inside his jacket, pulled a twenty out before tossing the rest to Ranji.

“No seriously! What just happened?!” He fumbled the catch, still in shock from what he had seen.

“Simple. A small pack of werewolves, I killed two, you killed one, the biggest one too. Whether you like it or not welcome to hunting. That's a great first kill, and when people ask you got one hell of a story, kinda like that Garth kid. He was a dentist that killed a tooth fairy as his first.” Doug was going through his duffel bag until he came up with a flask. Taking a full drink he passed it off to Ranji with a grimace at the proof who declined it in turn. He shrugged, took another swing, and capped it back off.

“Your choice. You can try to go back to how your life was before, or you could see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.” He offered the other man an out of the lifestyle. It wasn't for everyone but it wasn't something that was easily ignored once you knew about it. “Either way I'm gonna need a ride into town or maybe the next city over where I can max out these cards, pawn off the goods, and buy a new car.”

“They're real?!” He started breathing hard and fast. Still trying to comprehend the new information of the existence of things like werewolves.

“Woah Ji. Slow breaths yer gonna pass out. Yes, real. And dangerous and I take care of them, well you took care of one tonight. Look this might be easier to explain with some food, come on, if you won’t drive hand me your keys and I’ll drive us. There’s got to be a diner in this town.”

Ranji handed the keys over, still too astounded to try driving after witnessing all that. Doug took them and drove them to the nearest diner. Pulling into a spot positioned just out of the overhead lights he popped the trunk and pulled out clean shirts for both of them, swapping out his torn and bloody shirt for something that would arouse fewer questions. Ranji had finally calmed down and was trying to digest everything that had happened.

“Ji, you eat meat?” He asked before ordering two burgers and sodas for them. “So man, what do you think?”  
Ranji held off on answering, he had just been thrust into the world of the supernatural. He learned that there are monsters out there, praying upon people and families. He knew that being a taxi-driver wasn’t his live calling, and now he was starting to feel the pull. He could help people, he could actually make a difference.

  
“Do you still need a driver?”


End file.
